The summer in the south was extremely hot. In early July, the Song army finally arrived in Chizhou to join forces with the Jiangnan navy. The Song and Tang alliances were assembled.
These naval forces sailed south from Jinling and arrived in Chizhou early, training and practicing in the river every day.
When the Song army came to Chizhou, they also camped here and began formal military training.
The person who is usually in charge of new recruits is called Dutou, and he is in charge of one hundred soldiers.
The man who led Liu Ruyan was born with a thick head and an even louder voice.
On this day, just after the recruit training in the morning was completed, the sky suddenly thundered and a heavy rain fell.
When the heavy rain stopped and the sky turned gray, everyone held a riding whip in one hand and rushed the recruits who were still hiding from the rain outside the camp to carry shipbuilding timber to the Navy.
The ground that had rained was extremely muddy, and the wheels transporting lumber were deeply sunk into the soil, making it difficult to move even an inch.
Dutou then asked the recruits to each carry a piece of thick wood and quickly deliver it to the workers.
Liu Ruyan picked up the heavy piece of wood and put it on her shoulders. Every step she took seemed quite strenuous. The others had already run ahead, leaving only Dong Qingxian and her far behind.
"Why are you two again?!" Both raised their riding whips and yelled loudly, "You two always end up last, especially you, you look like a monkey, why are you called Wang Dazhuang? Bah!"
Three riding whips were thrown down, splashing countless mud flowers.
Liu Ruyan carried the wood and stood on tiptoes to dodge back and forth, avoiding the three whips.
She said with a smile on her face: "My parents gave me my name. Who knew I would have such a small body when I grow up? If the food in the camp was better, I might be able to gain more weight."
"Oh, little soldiers like you will only be able to eat cakes in your life." He picked up the whip and hung it back on his waist, looking at her coldly, "It's good to have something to eat now. When the time comes to enter the battlefield, you will eat it yourself."
May you be blessed!"
Based on his many years of experience in leading troops, a skinny monkey like Wang Dazhuang will only serve as an infantryman until the day he dies. To put it bluntly, he is a human shield to protect the elite main force.
Du Tou's words were harsh, but Liu Ruyan just lowered her head and said nothing.
As infantrymen, they usually have to transport the entire army's supplies, such as grain, grass, weapons and other heavy objects. Because Liu Ruyan's physical strength is not as strong as that of men, she falls behind every time she carries things, so she is naturally disliked by others.
The next day, the sky cleared after the rain.
They were all pacing with their heads square, shaking the riding whip in their hands.
He waved his hand and pointed to the nearest mountain: "All the new recruits of the 14th Battalion, please run around the mountain ten times for me!"
As a result, the young recruits were stunned.
What?
Ten laps!!
Fortunately, as soon as the leader gave the order, he ran under the tree to enjoy the cool air. Everyone looked at each other and planned to be lazy.
"None of you are allowed to be lazy, no less than ten laps. If anyone dares to neglect, whoever reports it will get an extra bun for dinner today." Du Tou said harshly again.
Now everyone was honest and ran to the top of the mountain resignedly.
The first stage of training new recruits focuses on physical fitness and training the soldiers' endurance.
Everyone cheered and rushed up the hillside. Liu Ruyan and Dong Qingxian were sandwiched in the crowd, running leisurely.
In the first lap, a group of people ran as fast as if they were on Hot Wheels. They completed two laps in one go. However, in the third lap, everyone ran slower and slower. By the fifth lap, they were already tired.
Like a dead dog.
By the eighth round, the recruits looked helpless, and some even fell to the ground, pretending to be lying dead.
Dong Qingxian was able to handle it with ease because of his deep internal strength.
By the tenth lap, only two people were still holding on on the entire mountain, including Liu Ruyan.
When Dutou saw two men running towards him, one of them was as thin as a monkey, but judging from his expression, this man had a long and steady breath and steady steps. He was not Wang Dazhuang.
"Good boy, this guy is promising." Du stood up and raised his mustache upwards.
He asked Liu Ruyan and Dong Qingxian to sit down and rest, then took out a riding crop and walked towards the hillside with square steps.
The teenagers collapsed on the ground. Some of them saw them coming with sneaking eyes. They hurriedly got up and ran up a few steps in a pretentious manner.
Others were unlucky and were caught red-handed, with a whip on their head and a whip in each hand, causing them to beg for mercy repeatedly and wailing like a flock of crows.
After this incident, they all got a nickname - Iron Three Whips.
Anyone caught by him will definitely be whipped three times!
When Liu Ruyan went to get food in the evening, she actually received an extra steamed bun this time. She wrapped the steamed bun in a handkerchief, picked up the bowl, and walked around to the back of the tent.
Under the tree, Bai Zhi and Dong Qingxian have been waiting for a long time.
As soon as Liu Ruyan sat down, Bai Zhi gave her the meat in the bowl: "The new recruits are physically exhausted. Eat more meat so that you can exert your strength."
She looked at the tender and plump chicken leg, the oil dripping into the bowl, and it looked very delicious.
"The gang leader soldiers bought this from the village, and the military medical battalion got a lot of it." Bai Zhi said, putting another piece of meat into Dong Qingxian's bowl, "The military doctors get the meat every now and then, and I was disgusted by the taste.
It’s better for you to eat.”
Liu Ruyan was silent.
As a military doctor, Bai Zhi's food is indeed better than that of ordinary soldiers, but he separates the meat and vegetables at every meal, so he eats poorly.
Liu Ruyan raised her eyes and looked at Bai Zhi, who was following her day and night. Her face became much thinner.
She took out a steaming steamed bun from her arms and handed it over. Her tone seemed a little disgusting: "This is just what a grown man eats. Come on, eat more steamed buns."
Bai Zhi took it with a smile.
In the distance, the sun was setting, and the golden afterglow shrouded the camp. The three of them squatted under the shade of a tree and finished their meal before returning to the camp.
The Song army consisted of five hundred people per battalion.
The tent where Liu Ruyan was located had a layer of straw on the ground, and ten quilt mats spread on top of the straw.
When the recruits first arrived in the south, they liked to roll up the curtains to let the night breeze blow into their tents because they thought the weather was too hot.
The young man sleeping by the window is called Liu Xin.
He was naturally afraid of heat, so his trouser legs were rolled up to his knees. Then he rolled on the mat, took out the cattail leaf fan he brought from his hometown, held it in his hand and shook it: "I heard that starting from tomorrow, the Iron Three Whips will be held.
Let the new recruits go to the school grounds, let alone practice, my calves are still shaking."
"That's not true." Others also felt worried.
Liu Xin put down his leaf-leaf fan and slapped a blood-sucking mosquito to death. Under the moonlight, he held it up to his eyes to take a closer look.
The food has not been good lately, and even this mosquito's belly is dry and flat.
He blew away the flying mosquitoes in his hands, clicked his tongue and said: "I also heard that the sailors transferred from the south of the Yangtze River spend all day soaking in the water, and they can touch some shells, fish, shrimps, crabs, etc., and they don't know what to eat.
How much better than us. Especially the white rice they eat, the crystal-clear Southern rice, you don’t know the taste and texture!”
As he elaborated, everyone took a sip of saliva.
At this point, Liu Xin suddenly slapped his thigh: "Starting tomorrow, I will also go to the mountains to hide a few animal cages and beat them as a sacrifice."
Everyone became interested, as if the training that was to follow was no longer a problem. We talked about how to make an animal cage.